Improvement in gas-engines



a. B BRAYTUN.

Gas-Engines.

Patented June 2,1874.

IIIII 'III "VMI j e FID'. l.

INVEN TDH| D... ,E S S E N .h W.

Fllal m W m m www UNITED STATES PATENT OEEroE.

GEORGE B. BRAYTON, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN GAS-ENGINES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 151,468, dated June 2, 1874; application filed March 11,1874.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORG-E B. BEAYTON, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Gas-En gines; and I do hereby declare that the following specification, taken in connection with the drawings making a part of the same, is a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

Figure 1 is a front elevation. Fi 2 is partly a side view and partly a vertical section. Fig. 3 is a sectional view on an enlarged scale of the means for carbonizing the air in its passage to the combustion-chamber of the engine.

In the Letters Patent for improvement in gas engines granted t me under date of April 2, 1872, No. 125,1 6, reference is made to the fact that the vapor of naphtha mixed with atmospheric air in proper proportions will form a gaseous compound which, upon being ignited, can be used as a motive power for the engine described in said patent. There exist, however, certain practical difficulties in the way of employing the vapors of light hydrocarbons with the apparatus shown and described in said patent, which it is the object of the presentimprovement to overcome.

lWIy invention consists in a certain means for enabling a given quantum of atmospheric air, as it is passing toward the combustionchamber of the engine from a reservoir where it has been confined under pressure, to become earbonized by being brought into contact with a liquid hydrocarbon, which is vaporized by the air-current passing over or through it, and such vapor being absorbed by the air a compound results which possesses the constituents of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, in

,proper proportions to furnish, when ignited,

the agent of force for the motive power of the engine.

The several charges for supplying the combustion-chamber are successively mixed at the instant of entering the engine under conditions which obviate the necessity of any reserve of explosive compound, and thus is removed the chance of any danger resulting from any collection of the same in a reservoir preparatory to being applied by ignition to develop force.

In the drawings, A is the cylinder of a single acting engine. B is the piston of the same, and O is a reservoir for containing atmospheric air under any desired pressure, which pressure is maintained by an air-pump worked by the engine in any preferred way.

The apparatus, in all other respects than those which relate to the means for vaporizing hydrocarbon liquids in small quantities for successive chargesfor the engine by the quantity of air itself, which is to form one of the constituents of the charge, may be the same as that described in the Letters Patent heretofore granted to me April 2, 1872, and which may be referred to for the fuller understanding of the machinery employed.

D represents a pipe furnished with a regulating-valve, which connects the air-reservoir C with the induction-passage a to the cylinder A. E is the main shaft, upon one end of which is a suitable balance-wheel, F. This shaft is furnished with suitable cams for opening alternately at the right times the injection-valve b and exhaust-valve c.

It is quite evident that if air be vcontained in the reservoir C under pressure, a charge will be admitted once in every revolution of the shaft E to the induction-passage a, by reason of the opening of the injection-valve b by the cam on the shaft, which, in this case, is effected by the impinging of the surface of the cam upon the lever d, the stem of the valve b being linked to such lever.

In order to enable each charge of atmospheric air admitted into the induction-pipe leading to the combustion-chamber a to vaporize the proper equivalent of liquid hydrocarbon, suicient to form, when absorbed by it, a gaseous compound to be subsequently ignited, the end of the induction-pipe is, in this instance, surrounded by an annular space, c, which is to be stuffed with sponge, felt, or some brous absorbent, Figs. 2 and 3. This fibrous or cellular substance is charged at each revolution of the shaft with a prescribed quantity of liquid hydrocarbon, and this can be conveniently done by means of a suction and forcing pump, G, the plunger of which is worked by a cam on the main shaft, as shown at Figs. 1 and 2. The vessel or reservoir containing the liquid hydrocarbon may be located at any safe and convenient point, and connected with the barrel of the pump by the suction-pipe f. A regulatingvalve is applied to the suction-pipe, to determine the quantity of fluid that shall be injected at each charge. The top of the inductionpipe and the surrounding annular chamber is covered With a metallic disk or plate, g, forming a valve, which is held down by a light spring, h. When thecharge of atmospheric air is admitted through the injection-valve b from the air-reservoir C, it is resisted by the valve g sufficiently to cause the current, which spreads in all directions as it raises the valve, to come into contact with the top surface of the fibrous matter charged with liquid hydrocarbon ,in the annular chamber 5 or, if preferred, the sides of the inducted pipe may be perforated With holes, whereby the air, to the eX- tent of the resistance of the spring-valve g, will be forced through the ibrous material in the annulus. The result is, that the air-current vaporizes under these conditions in proportion to its volume and intensity so much of the hydrocarbon fluid as is required to make the Well-known gaseous compound which a mixture of such constituents produces. This agent of force nou7 passes through the perforated diaphragm H, or flame-intercepter, into the combustion-chamber, when it is iired in the manner described in my previous Letters Patent.

I have found in the use of the apparatus described, that when the temperature of the atmosphere is too 10W to support a vapor, the force of the charge of air from the air-reservoir will drive ot't the hydrocarbon iiuid in the absorbent in the form of line spray, Which will be borne bythe air-current into the meshes l of the gauze name-intercepter H, Where it instantly vaporizes and combines with the air.

Although I have described what I conceive to be the best form of apparatus for volatilizing hydrocarbon fluids, and causing the same to combine With the required equivalents of atmospheric air to form a gaseous mixture to be used as a motive power, I do not limit myself to the precise form of the devices, or the arrangement described. Thus, instead of a brous absorbent, one or more disks o f tine Wire-gauze may be used, or any other suitable means for enabling the iluid, when delivered in small quantities into the chamber, to spread itself out in a lm, or be disseminated over a considerable space, so as to be readily taken up in the form of vapor or ine particles by the air-current passing over or through it; also, the chamber e, if made of sutlicient area, can be supplied with hydrocarbon liquid Without employing special means, as described, for enabling it to spread over a large surface, and very good results be obtained.

The essential features of my invention will be embodied in any apparatus which employs a reservoir containing atmospheric air under pressure, and arranged to deliver a charge of air into an induction-pipe leading to the combustion chamber4 of the engine, When such charge of air is made to travel in its course over or through a hydrocarbon iiuid, so that the air-current can either vaporize and coinbine With the vapor of the fluid, or take up and bear away the iuid in fine globules, to be subsequently vaporized on entering the coinbustion-chamber.

What I claim as my invention, and desire Y to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. An apparatus for mixing atmospheric air and volatilized hydrocarbons in successive charges as a motive power, when ignited, for a gas-engine, consisting of a reservoir, G, containing atmospheric air under pressure, in combination with a hydrocarbon-chamber and an automatically-actuated valve, which is arranged to intermittently admit compressed air to pass from the reservoir in successive charges into the hydrocarbon-chamber, substantially as described.

2. The air-reservoir C, for containing air under pressure, thehydrocarbon-chamber e, and an intermittent injector arranged to supply the chamber with hydrocarbon in. successive charges, substantially as described.

GEORGE BAILEY BRAYTON.

Witnesses WM. BURLINGAME, Jns. CLARK. 

